Social

Open Storefront

The Open Storefront Project: temporary space for creating art

The Open Storefront Project is an initiative of On The
Boards Staging Company. The goal of the project is to provide artists with a
temporary space in which to create, as well as to bring life to unleased
storefront spaces. We partner with retail businesses and building owners to
provide the space free-of-charge to artists. We hope that our animation of the
different spaces allows the public to see into the process of the arts and to
promote the leasable space to potential buyers or renters. With every leasing
of the spaces we animate, we feel a lot of pride and are excited to see where
we go next.

Early days

The Open Storefront Project launched at the end of September
2016, in collaboration with Brainsport. Using their old store space on Broadway
Avenue, only a few groups were able to work in it before it was quickly leased
by Wanuskewins’ pop-up store. Artists producing Apple as part of Live Five’s
season, were one of the groups to work in this space.

Next, we moved across the street at the invitation of Calories
Restaurant and Bakery to use the empty storefront next to them. Before that space was leased, we hosted many
artist groups including The Short Cuts Festival, The U of S Senior Studio Art
Class, the team behind Live Five’s Pink Unicorn and Sum Theatre.

Now

The Open Storefront has moved to Confederation Mall and has
already seen a significant increase in use. This space is much larger than our
previous spaces and has many additional benefits, such as free wifi, access to
the food court, and charging stations for phones or laptops. “Confed” has been
renovating and remodeling it’s role in the neighbourhood, becoming a hub for
the community, not just a place to shop.
Having an arts presence is an important part of that.

P.S.- Pop Ups!

Sometimes one space isn’t enough to support all the artists
who want to work. Or the space isn’t suitable for the type of work being
developed. On these occasions, we have
partnered with others to provide a “pop-up” location for a specific
project. The Saskatoon Symphony
Orchestra let us use their storefront office space; Dance Saskatchewan also. If you know of a suitable space or pop-up
space for The Open Storefront Project, we would love to hear from you.

The Future

The fact that we use space temporarily and move around at
first seemed to be a negative. But it
has proved to be an asset. Now we look
forward to being able to provide all of Saskatoon with an opportunity to see
into the window of an artist’s world, and all artists with the opportunity to
use this free creation space.

For artists wishing to rent The Open Storefront, it is FREE
and we accept bookings on an ongoing basis. Just e-mail cynthia@ontheboards.ca.

See someone working in the storefront? Let us know about it
by tagging us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or using the hashtag
#osfproject